Leo Tolstoy · 1869
War and Peace
Война и миръ
An epic of love, war, and the search for meaning — set against the greatest military catastrophe of the nineteenth century, and the society that watched it unfold from gilded ballrooms and burning fields alike.
Begin ReadingIn 1805, Russia joined Britain and Austria in a war against Napoleon Bonaparte. Eight years later, the French emperor marched 600,000 men into Russia — the largest army Europe had ever seen — and emerged with a fraction of that number, pursued by winter, Cossacks, and ruin. Between those dates, a generation of Russians lived, loved, fought, grieved, and searched for meaning in a world turned upside down. Leo Tolstoy spent six years writing their story. He called it War and Peace.
“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.”
— Kutuzov, War and Peace
It is not a novel about war. It is not a novel about peace. It is a novel about how human beings —愚蠢 and wise, vain and humble, young and old — navigate the space between the two. At over 1,200 pages, with more than 500 characters, it is the Mount Everest of world literature. This site is your guide to the climb.